Accreditation Visit by WASC, October 8-10, 2013

September 17, 2013

An academic team led by President David Skorton from Cornell University will visit UC Santa Barbara on behalf of the campus's accrediting agency, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), on October 8-10, 2013, as part of the final stage of our work toward reaccreditation. We write to invite you to participate in the visit by attending one of the meetings for faculty, staff, or students listed below. The meetings are an opportunity for all members of the campus community to provide information about their experiences at UCSB to the visiting team. Students are particularly encouraged to comment on issues of academic quality and rigor, availability of student support services, and other matters related to the quality of the educational experience.

Members of the visiting team will hold open meetings with UCSB community members on Wednesday, October 9, in Mosher Alumni House at the following times:

Staff: Alumni Hall, 2:00-2:45 p.m.

Undergraduate Students: Living Room, 2:00-2:45 p.m.

Faculty: Alumni Hall, 3:00-3:45 p.m.

Graduate Students: Living Room, 3:00-3:45 p.m.

WASC understands that not everyone who may wish to participate can attend these meetings, and it has established a confidential email account to allow faculty, staff, and students the opportunity to communicate directly with the team. The address is: wasc2ucsb@yahoo.com. This is a secure location to which only authorized WASC staff and team members have access. The emails will not be viewed by any representative of UCSB. Only comments made before or during the visit will be considered as part of the review process.

Emails received after the visit will not be reviewed by the team. Email comments, along with other information collected and reviewed by the team, will be considered as the team develops recommendations for UCSB. However, the team will not respond to individual comments.

During the WASC visit, members of the review team will be reviewing the campus's progress on its goals for educational effectiveness. For more information about the campus's initiatives in this area, please go to:

https://evc.ucsb.edu/wasc/steps/educational.effectiveness.review

If you have questions, please contact Accreditation Liaison Officer Mary Nisbet, Dean of Undergraduate Education, College of Letters and Science; Associate Accreditation Liaison Officer Margaret Weeks, Director of Academic Program Review; or Deborah Karoff, Executive Director, Academic Senate.

Thank you for your help with this important endeavor.